My body is not your measuring stick.
My body shouldn’t make you feel worse about yourself.
My body shouldn’t make you feel better about yourself.
Your body is not my measuring stick.
Your body shouldn’t make me feel worse, or better, about myself.
The same can be said for any woman’s body — no body should be your measuring stick.
While I post workouts and videos on this website and in the Lift Like a Girl workout guides, you should not use my body for comparison, or anyone else’s.
Let’s bring this to light with a current example: the Olympics. Every four years the same thing happens; people are in awe of the physical-prowess, and appearance, of gymnasts. Articles roll out screaming, “If you want to look like a gymnast, train like one!” That’s when bodyweight workouts and suspension trainer/ring exercises make a resurgence.
Let’s make one thing blatantly clear: a professional gymnast should not be your measuring stick.
Gymnasts train for hours practically every day. Many train 30 or more hours every week and oftentimes twice a day. That’s basically a full time job, my friend. Think you could work even half of that load into your busy life?
If you don’t want to devote your life to being a great gymnast, then don’t use the body of an 18 year old professional gymnast as your measuring stick. The physique of any professional athlete is the result (not the goal) of their many, many years of training to be the best at their sport.
Measurements That Matter
Saying, “Don’t use my body or anyone else’s as a measuring stick” sounds simple enough, but applying it can be difficult. I know, because I’ve been there. Everywhere we look — be it health and fitness magazines, websites, or damn near any magazine targeted at women — is plastered with women who have a certain look.
How can we not be affected by this and think those women are our measuring stick?
And I’ve received emails from women asking, “If I do your workout program will I look like you?” Unless we have the same parents, you’re 31 years old and have been strength training properly for over 15 years, you’re 5’6″ and have long arms, a short torso, long legs, and my other specific biological traits, I’m not going to say yes.
The goal with any program I create is to help you reach your goals be it fat loss, to get stronger, or build muscle. But you’ll look like you and not me, or anyone else. My body is not your measuring stick, and neither is her’s.
Here are some measurements that do matter, and you’d be wise to track these. I use these with clients, and myself:
- The quality of your life
- How you feel and move
- Energy levels
- Blood markers (e.g., cholesterol, fasting blood glucose, etc.)
- Your confidence
- Your physical (and mental) strength
Those are just a few measurements to track that are actually useful and proper strength training and simple nutrition are some of the best tools. Get those measurements moving in the right direction and you’ll do incredibly well.
If you need more direction than that, answer these questions:
- How do y I want to feel and move?
- What do I want my body to be able to do?
- How can eating well and working out become an enjoyable (or more sustainable) part of my life?
Those answers are your measuring stick.
Resist the constant temptation to compare your body to anyone else’s; anything telling you that “You can look just like her too!” is rampant bullshit of health and fitness. Avoid it. Be you. Become the best version of yourself.
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